With a waiting list of more than 13,000 people in Kirklees it doesn’t take a genius to work out that something is wrong with our council housing system.

People who cannot afford a mortgage or a decent private rented property are being left living in horrendous conditions, often managed by slum landlords who prey on the vulnerable.

Housing chiefs at Kirklees Council are determined to do all they can to improve the situation but it’s clear they are being hampered by rules designed to aid councils in the south and an ideological obsession with home ownership that is unsuitable for northern markets.

A second strand of the plan is to use disused council premises and small plots of land that are less desirable to luxury developers, for the councils own housing projects, such as ‘full fat’ council housing, so-called ‘affordable homes’ managed by housing associations and care facilities for the elderly and disabled.

The battle for a suitable council house in Kirklees

One couple who have been struggling with Kirklees’ council housing are June and Bob Piper.

They moved to the borough in 2010 and were initially happy with their one bed bungalow in Dalton.

However, when they decided to go for a bigger home to allow their grandson to live with them, things started to go sour.

They got a two bed flat in Mirfield through the council’s Choose and Move system but soon had issues aound the bathroom and the heating system, which was later condemned, leaving them without heating for several days during the winter.

With June, 66, suffering from epilepsy and diabetes, the damp and cold risked significant health issues.

Said June: “Because I’m diabetic I had the chance of losing a limb.”

With their grandson opting to move out, they decided to downsize again and opted for a one bed bungalow in Batley that they hoped would be more suitable for June’s wheelchair.

Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing said they would try and build ramp access and a wet room to allow June safer bathing.

Sadly neither of the suggestions came off and the couple are now left in a home with large entry steps and a bathroom that June cannot safely use.

June and Bob, 73, are now looking to move again.

“We’d love to stay but we’ll have to move out,” said June.

“The neighbours have been fantastic and they’ve helped us out a lot.

“A young lady from across the road got us a better wheelchair – it’s a lovely community.”

Kirklees Council’s cabinet member responsible for social housing, Clr Cathy Scott, said they were doing everything they could to encourage the private sector to do their bit, while making the conditions right for the third sector to thrive.

“The council can’t do this on its own,” said Clr Scott.

“We need to do it in partnership and be forward thinking.

“We have met with strategic partners across Kirklees and outside Kirklees.

“But we’ve got to be realistic – there is a 13,000 application waiting list.

“The average family in Kirklees is 2.5 people, so that’s a lot of people waiting for houses.

Clr Cathy Scott

“We’ve got to look at new innovative ways of building homes, it won’t just be the council that will be delivering – obviously there will be private developers coming in to offer housing, so it’s about having that realistic view that we’re open for business.

“Another part of it is about releasing our own land.

“The five year plan is for 10,000 houses and we’re committed as a council to 1,000 on our own land.”

The council’s director responsible for social housing, Naz Parkar, said they were hoping 1,049 affordable homes would be built each year by developers.

But he admitted the most pressing need was for council run rented homes, which were the hardest to finance due to restrictive government rules.

He explained: “If you think we’re losing on average 183 homes a year through Right To Buy, that’s hard to replace.

“Only 30% of the Right To Buy receipts are allowed to be invested in building new housing.

“We’ve got one arm behind our backs as councils in terms of doing the council house building.

“The council can’t do much as the rules are stacked up against us.”

Right To Buy explained

Roughly speaking, if a home is worth £100,000 it could be sold by Kirklees to its tenant for anything between £30,000 to a maximum of £75,000.

Kirklees Council only gets to keep 30% of that - potentially just £9,000.

Building a new council house to replace it will likely cost at least five times that.

There are strict rules on the council’s use of borrowing which prevent it from taking out loans to finance social housing.

Almost 200 council houses are being sold in Kirklees every year while the council is only managing to build a handful.

The Local Government Association has warned that without a fundamental re-examination of Right to Buy, the scheme will have to end when there are no more homes to sell.

Last month the Ministry of Housing launched a review that will consider letting councils keep 100% of the cash from sales.

One stark example of that is a recent £1bn loan scheme offered by the government for councils to build social housing.

While London’s Newham Council applied for £150m to build shiny new council flats, Kirklees was banned from even applying.

Why? Because government set rules on “affordability” mean they deem private rents in Kirklees are still acceptable compared to the gap between private and social rents in the south east – which let’s face it, are likely to be astronomic.

A one bed flat inside the M25 is unlikely to be less than £1,000 per month.

Here in Kirklees, a half decent private one bed flat will be half that, but that’s still out of the question for most people on benefits.

Social housing rents are currently £69.10 per week on average – roughly £280 a month for a one bed flat.